With the largest local girls football tournament today, good luck to everyone who entered, attendance was very low. But, the girls that showed up, used this last week in the block to show us how good they really are with an hour of matches.

We had one new girl come and try futsal for the first time – welcome Lottie – we hope you had fun and look forward to welcoming you again very soon!

As we had several age groups mixed together today, we worked on how we could get them all playing and working as a team, not easy when many of the players have never played together before. The easiest way is to allow the players to set the rules, who scores the goals and how they score them. It is brilliant to see what they come up, does it benefit just their team or both, do they make rules for the sake of rules or are they thinking about what makes a good game?

Players Of The Block

U10 Player – Lily N – This young lady just keeps getting better and better. For her age she is constantly looking to involve her teammates in the game. She can run with the ball, pass, and score as good as anyone in her and the age group above. But, best of all she just looks like she is having fun. The future is very bright for this one, top, top job Lily!

U12 Player – Freya L – She had a break for a while whist settling into her new school, but she came back with a bang. A massively improved player who has played exception in all the games she has been involved in this year, with her ability to read the game far exceeding her young age. So glad she came back, and we can’t wait to work with her going forward, keep this up Freya!

U14 Player – Hattie F – Not sure what more we can say about this young lady, she pretty much has it all, pace, power, drive and just hates losing. She works her socks off up and down the court, week in and week out, has a great eye for goal and never ever gives up. Without doubt another one of the players who will surely wear the green shirt of the ladies’ team in the not too distance future, great block Hattie!

U16 Player – Katie D – A player I have had the pleasure of working with both in football and futsal and possible one of the best I have ever worked with. That is not down just to ability but as one of the best players to coach. She listens, asks questions, applies what we are talking about and tries her hardest to improve each week. On top of this, possible the nicest young lady in the club. Thank you for all you do each week Katie, you are one superb star!

Final thoughts of a coach – Thank you to the amazing players who turn up each week and work their socks off, they do it with smiles on their faces and a determination to get better, we are so lucky to have such a fantastic group of young ladies. Thank you to the amazing parents who bring their daughters each week, who sit and watch, listen and support both their daughters and us as a club. Thank you to the coaches who work with me, providing support and guidance to the players with the expert knowledge and love of the game of futsal. A final thank you to Suzy, who believed in me when I said I wanted to start this amazing club 7 years ago. She has been such an amazing part of this journey and without her the club simply wouldn’t have existed.

Next Saturday the ladies play in their first ever national cup final, an amazing achievement considering two and a half years ago the team didn’t even exist. We have five players in that squad who played in the ladies first ever match, we won’t mention the score, but it was a real hard lesson against Cheshire. What makes me smile more than anything is the number of academy graduates that will be in the cup final squad. Kim, Katie, Heather and Ava have all come through the academy, starting a various ages, and rightly deserve their place in the cup final squad and I have ever faith they will play a major part in the game. We constantly tell the academy players that if they are good enough, they will play, and these four are paving the way for the future. Enjoy the day ladies, be part of history and do all you can to bring that cup back to York.

We are off for a couple of weeks now, but we will see you all back on Sunday 9 June for the last block of another truly amazing season.

Coach Chris